Happy Paddy's Day!

From me in Ireland, to you all over the world, happy St. Patrick's Day. More on the activities for the day later. To celebrate and test your knowledge of Ireland, here's a 10 question quiz: 1. Some areas in Ireland are known to receive this many inches of rain each year, which accounts for the brilliantly green grass that has earned Ireland the nickname the "Emerald Isle": a. Sixty inches b. Seventy inches c. Eighty inches d. Ninety inches 2. "Erin Go Bragh," a phrase heard often on St. Patrick's Day, means: a. I Love Ireland b. Ireland Forever c. Brave and Free d. Ireland, My Home 3. Irish tradition says that anyone who kisses the blarney stone, which is located near this town, will be blessed with the Irish "gift of gab": a. Dublin b. Wexford c. Cork d. Waterford 4. This Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet and playwright was also a senator of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1928: a. George Bernard Shaw b. James Joyce c. Jonathan Swift d. William Butler Yeats 5. This film, shot in Ireland in 1952, was directed by John Ford: a. Ryan's Daughter b. The Quiet Man c. The Dead d. The Informer 6. Traditional Irish music has found an international audience with the popularity of such Celtic bands as: a. The Chieftans b. The Lads c. Shannon Rovers d. Sweet Honey in the Rock 7. Today, the prime minister of the Republic of Ireland is: a. Frank McCourt b. Ian Dunkirk c. Bertie Ahern d. Gerry Adams 8. In November 1995, the people of Ireland narrowly passed a referendum legalizing: a. Same-sex marriages b. Abortion c. Divorce d. Marijuana 9. With 27,136 square miles of land, the Republic of Ireland is approximately half the size of this U.S. state: a. Montana b. California c. Louisiana d. Arkansas 10. Today, this number of Americans trace their ancestry back to Ireland: a. Ten million b. Twenty-five million c. Forty million d. Sixty-five million Answers: D, B, C, D, B, A, C, C, D, C